President Joe Biden called out the NFL for the lack of Black head coaches in an interview that aired before the Super Bowl on Sunday.
During a pre-game interview with NBC, Mr. Biden pointed to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s comments that the league hasn’t “lived up to being open about hiring more minorities to run teams.”
“Think about it: The whole idea that a league that is made up of so many athletes of color, as well as so diverse, that there’s not enough African American qualified coaches to manage these NFL teams — it just seems like a standard that they’d want to live up to,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s not a requirement of law, but it’s a requirement I think of just some generic decency.”
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The president’s comments come less than a month after former head coach Brian Flores, who is Black, filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL and three other teams—alleging several instances of racial discrimination. Flores told “CBS Mornings” that he filed it to “create some change.”
“I think we are at a fork in the road,” he said. “We are either going to keep it the way it is or go in another direction and actually make some real change in where we are actually changing the hearts and minds of those who make decisions to hire head coaches, executives, etc.”
The suit and renewed criticism on the subject prompted NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to say the league won’t tolerate racism or discrimination, calling them “against our values.”
Eight of nine NFL head coach openings have been filled since the end of the regular season. Among those hired, Lovie Smith was the only Black man, who got the job when the Houston Texans promoted him from associate head coach. There’s only three head coaches who are people of color leading teams in the league.
During last year’s Super Bowl, Mr. Biden also denounced the lack of NFL Black head coaches.
“You’ve got to go out and look — there’s innumerous, incredibly qualified African American coaches out there,” Mr. Biden told Westwood One.
